It was silent – it had been for hours – if you didn’t count the waves that were whispering closer or the crackle of the pyres as they stretched higher and higher into the black night sky. It wouldn’t be long now before their nighttime vigil ended.
A few of the kids were already flagging.
Out of the corner of his eye, Walker spied Tern leaning heavily against her twin. Shoulder to shoulder, both of them were fighting to keep their eyes open. Only the other was keeping each from falling to lie in the sand with little Cassandra, who was curled up in a ball around a scabby-looking doll.
Johnny, on the other hand, was watching the pyre with rapt attention, standing tall by his mother’s side. If his eyes were shiny, Walker pretended not to notice. And if there were tracks on his cheeks, it
